Having teens clean the house on spring break, fair or not?

[merry2018]

Hello everyone,
I have 2 teen girl that are 17 year old and in few weeks it's a spring break for them. Both I and my husband work. Girl have regular chores of keeping their room clean, do their own laundry, wash dishes etc. Been both girls going to be home during the break, i want them to clean the house completely.House is 2500 sqft and we do not have a maid. Husband thinks this is unfair as it's their time off. However i am arguing that being both are not working, they can spend 1 day and give the house complete cleaning. What is everyone here thinking? Am i being too hard on them?

 

[CC94]

Nope, it couldn’t be anything but good for them! Saying this as as someone who was 17 once

 

[Bevziibubble]

I agree it will be good for them. It's good to give them responsibility

 

[morri]

when i was that age , each kid had a chore to do, and it was swapped over. like i had to do kitchen mo wef, ri, and brother had to do the vacuuming mo wed fri , and next week different

 

[Rags]

I think it's fare to ask them to clean their rooms from top to bottom and to run the vacuum over the place and not leave a mess for you to come home to (like wash and put away any dishes they use etc), but I'm with your husband on this one, I wouldn't be making them do the whole house. Why not agree a day when you're off and you all muck in together, finish it off with a sit down meal and a film together and it will add to their break rather than potentially causing tension between you all.

 

[SarahBear]

I would say that it should be a family effort (just my opinion... fine if you disagree), not just a kids effort, but also that spring break is the perfect time for something like this BECAUSE it's their time off! Time off = time to take care of the things that you otherwise wouldn't have time to do, including cleaning.

 

[merry2018]

Update: Had the girls clean the house top to bottom, yes they were pissed but did it. The good news is the house stayed clean the rest of the week. Not sure if both of them keep up the cleaning but at least one of them did for sure. Maybe it will keep them more motivated to keep the house more clean going forward.

 

[Bevziibubble]

Well done girls!